Star Trek: Swiftfire 10: The Founder Ploy
by The Sisko
Summary: A squadron from the Swiftfire is on patrol when they are apprehended by Special Operations Command to assist in a mission. The mission is to head deep into Cardassian space and kidnap the Founder leading the Dominion.
1. Chapter 1

**STAR TREK: SWIFTFIRE**

**_The Founder Ploy  
><em>**

(Season 1: Episode 10 [season finale])

* * *

><p>"You have to be more careful," said Doctor Carol Murphy. The Doctor picked up a hypospray and checked it. "Or you're going to become a permanent resident here in Sickbay."<p>

The Doctor flashed one of her trademark disarming smiles. It was one of her cards in her bedside manner hand. It was the type of smile that makes males, even some females, purposely hurt themselves so to receive it again, though not me. My injuries were quite real and very much unwanted.

"I was being careful!" I argued in my defence. "I was carefully raking a Dominion battle cruiser with my phasers when some Jem'Hadar carelessly hit me with phased polaron beams and pierced my shields. Very inconsiderate if you ask me."

Carol didn't look too impressed by my humour. "Not only is it bad for you but what about that poor fighter? You drag it into these situations, how many have you gone through?"

"Five," I said without much thought. To a pilot these fighters were like true loves, you never forget them. "Throughout my career, but so far in this conflict I haven't lost one fighter. In fact I've had this fighter longer then any of the previous ones."

"Then it should be as patched up as you are!" I nodded with the Doctor's statement. I doubted that even 20% of the craft was originally part of it when it left the production line. "No, I am serious," said the Doctor as if I was not taking it seriously. "You are one of my most frequent patients."

"Don't you like seeing me, Doc?" I said with my most hurt voice. I even gave her a puppy dog look.

"Stop it! I like you, Maxine. But being a doctor I know that the more times I see someone the more likely I'll see them again and that time they might not be able to leave."

The Doctor's gaze was full of concern, not for just a patient but genuine concern for a close friend. I had to pretend to find something interesting on my pants to scratch so I could look away from her intense gaze. "Look, Doc…Carol. I don't want to die and I'm not trying to get killed either. I chose a very dangerous profession and I did it knowing the risks. If I die at least it will be doing something I love."

Carol's face softened and she placed a hand on my shoulder. "Just be more careful, please."

"I'll try," I said, placing my hand on Carol's and patting it as if it would make her feel better.

I don't know if Carol was reassured or just gave up but she nodded and continued with my treatment. She placed the hypospray to my neck and I immediately felt relief as its contents did its work. I laid back and the Doctor locked the dermal regenerator around me. In a few seconds I was back to my best.

* * *

><p>Why is it that you always get guests when you're trying to sleep? I would have preferred to ponder this and the other important questions of life while I was in bed, but the person at the door was not going away. So I stood up and swaggered towards the door, grumbling to myself.<p>

I slammed my palm against the door controls and the door opened. There at the door was the Captain.

"I hope I didn't disturb you?" said the Captain.

"No, Jonathan. I was just getting ready to go to sleep," I lied. "Come in."

Jonathan Masters was his full name…as far as I knew at least; he never said anything about having any middle names. He was your career Starfleet officer, born to serve and command. His family had a long and proud history of service with Starfleet. Jonathan was the latest in the line of Masters who served the Federation in Starfleet. Like his predecessors he was carving out a fine career and had already achieved the rank of Captain. Oh, and we were also going out.

Physically Jonathan was an impressive figure. He was tall, close to two metres in height, which was a fair bit taller then me. He was solidly built, like a Tritanium wall. Despite humans been generally physically weaker then most other race in the Alpha Quadrant, Jonathan still looked like he could give a Klingon a hiding. His skin tone was brown, similar to me. He was also attractive, at least in my opinion. His eyes, his smile, everything about his face made him very attractive.

If there was something I didn't like that much it would be his hair. Jonathan wasn't a hairy person or anything like that. The dark brown hair on his head was always short and neat. It was the hair on his face. He had a goatee and moustache combination that seemed to be popular with Starfleet Captains these days. It was short and neat but I can't say I'm all that fond of facial hair. It's a silly little thing to be critical about but it was just something I don't really like.

The Captain and I have been dating for around four months now. It has been a slow process. But our relationship is…good.

"I'm sorry I couldn't see you earlier. But after the attack on the Carrier, Admiral Douglas and Miss Carter kept me occupied."

"It's alright. Has Miss Carter left?"

Jonathan nodded. Last week the _Swiftfire_ had housed a reporter from the Federation News Service who was doing a story on the ship. The reporter has expected a quiet patrol but got a lot more when the _Swiftfire_ got recruited to join Starfleet Task Force 59 as they went after a Dominion Super Carrier. The reporter got a great PR story of Starfleet forces breaking the back of the Dominion's supply operations along part of the front.

That was also when I got injured. My squadrons had joined the main attack group as it distracted the Carrier's escort group. The USS_ Venture_ and _Swiftfire_ were then used to try and catch the unprotected Carrier. After a tense few minutes the _Swiftfire_ managed to destroy the vessel, but at the cost of a Warp Core and extensive damage to the dorsal side of the ship. I managed to get fairly badly damaged at the start of the attack. I managed to fly into a crossfire and the damage to my fighter had led to a fire in the cockpit of the vessel, which kept flaring up during the battle, giving me some very bad burns. It also damaged my inertial dampeners and I managed to get some very bad bruising, internal bleeding, and cracked ribs from fighting with inertial dampeners that were sub-par. Not the worst injures I have ever had, but still painful.

"Well, I'm glad you're alright," said Jonathan.

Jonathan wasn't the most talkative person and like some males he had difficulty with emotions. This was partly the reason that our relationship had gone so slowly. The conversations would always fall back on the war to save it.

"So…where is the _Swiftfire_ off too now? Maybe Cardassia Prime or the Gamma Quadrant?" I asked.

"Nothing that exciting. Command has ordered us to return the ship to Spacedock at Earth for repairs. The Starbase here can only do some much for the amount of damage we took."

"It would be nice to see Earth again," I said. While Earth wasn't my home planet since I was born on Betazed I still had close ties to Earth, since my mother was from Earth. "When are we leaving?"

"In a few days, if we're lucky."

I furrowed my brow. "Why so long?"

"We're still having a lot of difficulty getting the ship to run with just one warp core due to the damage we took. We're using a lot of power right now, and we're not even at Warp! We think if we go to Warp we'd have problems with keeping life support and structural integrity up at the same time."

"So if we leave now we get the ship back to Earth and die of asphyxiation or we can breathe but our ship will be fall apart on the way. Not a great choice."

"Exactly. So we're taking some extra time to get ready."

I nodded. Again we had run out of topics to discuss.

"You look exhausted, Maxine. I better let you get some sleep," said Jonathan and let himself out.

I shuffled my way back to bed and fell into it. After this last meeting with Jonathan my mind wouldn't let go of thoughts that I didn't want to think. But as I fell asleep I couldn't deny them or their truth.


	2. Chapter 2

It was two days before Doctor Murphy would grant me permission to resume flying. Once she did I decided it was time to take my squadron out for some fun. It was obvious that Captain Masters wouldn't be giving us any assignments as we were just getting ready to go back to Earth, so I thought it would be good to give my pilots some fun. At 0500 my squadron of ten fighters, including myself, exited the _Swiftfire's_ hanger bay and went off to a nearby system for some in system combat practice.

We approached a small moon located around a small Class L planet deep in system, which we would be using for terrain in the exercise. I have to say I was looking forward to the exercise. These were always good fun in my opinion. Putting your piloting skills against another pilot, it was as close to the golden age of air combat in the 20th century as you could get.

"Put systems in practice mode," I ordered. Putting the fighter in practice mode cut power to torpedo launchers, the use of torpedoes was totally simulated and pilots were not expected to use them much. Phasers were set to a "tag" mode, which meant that the impact would be felt by the other ship but no damage would occur. It also set the shields so to register these hits and display damage as if the weapons were at full power, but in reality the shields would never drop below 100%. The safest way to fight!

First they would start off in two teams and then be continually broken down until it was every being for themselves. That was my favourite part.

Each pilot reported that they had switched to practice mode. "Okay, guys and gals, its party time!"

* * *

><p>Hours later we had reached the final exercise, the free-for-all. Currently there were five fighters left in battle, including me. So far the exercises had been great. Each pilot had shown they had forgotten little to nothing from their dogfighting training. In fact they had even got the better of me in a few occasions. But this was my forte.<p>

As in all free for alls each pilot would immediately pair themselves off. From here it was important to not get too involved in your battle that you didn't know what was going on around you. Since as soon as one pilot destroyed their partner they would just charge into another dogfight and if you weren't careful you would be the next one out of the game.

I surveyed the field and looked for my next target. I had to quickly go in and take out one pilot of their pairs and then the remaining pilot of the pair. I found him, the pilot who was doing the best out of the other four. This pilot would probably win their pair and then go and take on the last pair with me in it. This pilot would also be the biggest threat since they had the best shields and hull strength of the remaining pilots. So I targeted him and charged in.

But this pilot wasn't one of the last five for no reason. He quickly picked up on my approach and evaded my first attack. I flew past him and quickly started to turn back. The pilot I attacked had to be in two minds, he either could come after me, the biggest threat or stay on his current target and try and kill it quickly. He chose the latter. I got him back in my sights and saw he hadn't dealt with his target. My attack had given his target a break and was holding my target at bay.

I fired my Phaser cannons at my target, raking his rear shields. This time he had no choice but to break off his target and turn to deal with me. But I was on his tail before he could do anything. I sprayed Phaser fire into space with abandon. My target broke left, broke right, went up and down but he couldn't lose me and as time went by the more impacts my weapons made and the lower his shields were. My heavy fire was rewarded with my sensors showing that I penetrated the shields and hit the engine. My targets _Peregrine_ slowed down as his computer simulated the damage I had done. I slowed down so not to get too close or over shoot him. I had this guy.

Suddenly a threat indicator suddenly went off. One of the other pilots had gotten behind me and had fired two micro-torpedoes at me. Torpedoes coming for directly aft weren't easy to lose and to do it I would have to break off my attack from my target. That wasn't an option, because if I did then I'd most likely have two fighters on my tail. I was good but I'd been fighting for a while and my shields and hull wasn't exactly great. But two torpedoes would put me out of the fight as well. I didn't have long until the torpedoes reached me so I made a quick decision.

I accelerated and flew over my target, close enough that I could have reached out and touched his fighter. My target immediately pulled up and got directly behind me and opened fire with his Phasers. I put everything I had into rear shields. All I had to do was withstand this barrage for a few seconds if my plan worked. I watched my sensors as they showed the torpedoes approached. A second before they were to hit me they disappeared from sensors…so did the fighter behind me.

The other pilot had unwittedly placed his fighter between me and the torpedoes. Since the torpedoes were locked onto me the first sign he would have got of the threat was when the collision alarms went off, but by then it was too late. The torpedoes hit his damaged rear shields and destroyed his fighter. Most pilots would have been suspicious of what I did, but I betted on his ego getting the better of him. The chance to shoot his squadron leader would give him bragging rights around the bar when we got back to the _Swiftfire_, and like an respectable pilot he listened to his ego and attacked me instead of been more cautious. Sometimes pilots were so predictable.

My sensors also showed that my attacker was the last fighter in the game. It also showed me that it was the pilot I had saved before by going after the pilot attacking him. He must have caught the other two pilots by surprise with low shields to have dealt with them so quickly. But now he was on my tail and my rear shields were low from the barrage from the previous pilot. It looked like this would be a challenge. I love a challenge!

Phaser blasts passed around my ship as the other fighter tried to hit my fighter as I wildly corkscrewed through space. I wouldn't be able to do this forever as I would eventually lose and the fact that I was getting dizzy from the spinning stars. With one hand on the control stick I inputted commands into the flight console. I let go of the control stick, but the fighter continued corkscrewing because the computer had taken over control. I went to work with both hands and quickly finished the commands and then grabbed the control stick.

The fighter stopped spinning and several manoeuvring thrusters quickly rotated the fighter around without changing the direction the craft was going in. As the fighter turned I pressed the trigger and the fighter's Phaser cannons fired at the fighter that was trailing me. With the engines now facing the other way they fired slowly my fighter down. My manoeuvre caught the other pilot by surprise and he jinked to avoid been hit. With my fighter's rapid deceleration the other pilot didn't get much of a chance to fire at me before he shot past. By then my fighter had started to accelerate and since my fighter was going at a slower speed my fighter was able to complete a tighter turn, which meant I caught the other fighter in mid-turn. I raked the other fighter with Phaser cannon fire. The tables had turned and I was now on his tail.

I pointed the nose of my fighter slightly above the fighter I was pursing and fired two simulated torpedoes. I then pointed the nose back down and fired below the fighter and tracked upwards towards the other fighter. The pilot of the pursued craft pulled up in response to my fire and right into the line of the two simulated torpedoes. One missed, but the other impacted on the fighter bringing down its shields. A quick burst from my fighter's Phaser cannon quickly ended it.

I switched on my communication system. "I am the champion!" I said over the Squadron's frequency.

"_I gave you a run for your money, Lead," _replied the last pilot to be 'shot down'.

"You're getting better, Five. Give it a few years and you _might_ beat me."

"_More like you'll be a senior citizen before Five will ever beat you,"_ said a different pilot.

"_I managed to fry your butt, Eight,"_ retorted Five.

I was about to wade into the insult flinging when I noticed something on my fighter's sensors. By the looks of it several contacts were rounding the planet. The contacts' position made it impossible for sensors to actually tell what they were so the sensors couldn't tell if they were friendly or hostile craft, which wasn't good. I didn't like the look of this; if they were friendly craft they would be more open with their position.

"Code Four," I said over the comm channel. The SFC had a list of Codes that stood for different situations and made it so in a combat situation pilots didn't have to explain situations to other pilots and to other friendly vessels. A Code four was situations with unknown or unidentified vessels and for the fighters to assume a defensive formation, with shields and weapons at maximum.

I took my fighter towards the contacts and didn't need to watch as the rest of the squad formed in flights around me. The contact must have been skipping along the atmosphere since the fighter's sensors were still unable to identify the contacts. It looked like we'd have to wait for the contacts to around the planet so that we could identify the contacts visually.

"Get ready," I said over the comm channel as the contact was about to come into view. "Don't fire unless I give the order."

I kept one eye on the display screen on the flight console and waited for the vessel to come into view since I needed to get a closer look on the target area from what my eyes could see from a distance. My thumb hovered over the button to fire the ship's torpedoes.

Then the contacts came into view and I relaxed slightly. Instead of Jem'Hadar Attack ships like I expected there was a Type 11 Shuttle and four _Valkyrie_ class fighters. But the Shuttle and fighters showed signs of damage, which was a sign of trouble. The light blue beams of Phased Polaron energy slicing through space behind them was the second sign of trouble.

"Oh shit!" I swore. "First flight, dumb fire your torps straight ahead. Everyone else hold fire."

First flight, which was the four fighters in my flight immediately, fired two pairs of micro-torpedoes straight ahead. Two Jem'Hadar Attack ships came into view and into the path of the spread of torpedoes we had launched. The Attack ships managed to avoid most of the torpedoes as they wildly manoeuvred out of the way. But it had given the shuttle and its escort more of a lead on them.

"Flight Two and Three go for the Attack Ship on the right. Flight One will take on the left ship."

I led my flight straight down the throat of the Attack ship. The Attack ship fired back at my fighters but we were coming in too fast from them to accurately target us. But the battle was ours as soon as we got behind the Attack Ships. With no rear facing weapons my squadron pounded the Attack ships until they died a fiery death.

"_Overcome Squadron: two. Dominion: zero,"_ said Five as the explosion from the last Attack ship subsided.

"_Good work,"_ said an unidentified voice. _"We owe you our lives."_

Not knowing who was speaking I asked for clarification.

"_This is Colonel Lazenie on the Type 11 Shuttle, _Pride of Lyon_."_

"What the hell is going on, Colonel?" I asked.

"_I'll beam you over to the Shuttle and explain, as soon as you drop your shields of course."_

If I was a paranoid person I wouldn't have beamed over and I would have definitely not dropped my shields. But I was the curious type and I didn't sense any deception from them…but that didn't say much, I had little to no telepathic powers, but my gut said to trust him and my gut had very rarely been wrong.

I powered down my fighter's engines and then my shields.

"Ready to beam over."


	3. Chapter 3

When I rematerialised on the Shuttle I was greeted by three large men. One, an Andorian, stepped forward and stretched out his hand.

"Colonel Lazenie, pleasure to make your acquaintance," said the Colonel.

"Wing Commander Benton, attached to the _USS Swiftfire_. So what the hell is going on?"

The Colonel led me to the front of the Shuttle. There were a total of seven beings on the shuttle, all looked a little worse for wear, which wasn't surprising since they had just been chased by a pair of ships they had no hope of defeating. The Colonel got to the front of the shuttle and started to explain.

"We're a Starfleet Special Operations team and we were on our way to a mission. Our ship was destroyed and this is all that survived out of a ship with 942 men and women. It would have been a total disaster if you hadn't dealt with the Attack ships."

"Special Operations? Are you part of the Starfleet Rapid Response Force?"

The Colonel smiled. "No, we're better. We're a subsection of Starfleet Intelligence; the department is Special Operation Command, or SOC. I can tell you haven't heard of us, well that's the way we like it. We carry out missions deep in enemy territory, with minimal logistical support. Our behind-the-lines activities include infiltration, sabotage, surgical strikes, and intelligence gathering."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked. I was slightly perplexed that someone in a relatively unknown Intelligence organisation would be so free with information.

"Because you've just been recruited into SOC."

"What? By who?"

"By me. Under the Intelligence Security Act of 2267, section 123." The Colonel used the console in front of him, loading a document. He motioned for me to read it. I glanced at it and started to read. "Basically it says that when the safety of the Federation is in jeopardy the commanding officer of Intelligence Teams, which includes SOC, can recruit normal Starfleet officers for Intelligence Operations."

I finished reading the document and saw that the Colonel was right. It also said that refusal was not an option. I didn't like this and I was going to make sure the Colonel knew it.

"I don't like this. But what choice do I have?"

The Colonel nodded understandingly. "Normally I wouldn't do this, but this situation is that important to warrant this drastic method."

"So what is the situation?" I asked.

"We're going after a Dominion battle cruiser."

"That's the situation the warrants forcibly recruiting me and my squad? Can't say I'm impressed."

"Just let me finish, Wing Commander. This isn't any ordinary Battle cruiser; this is the female Changelings personal warship. We know where it is and we know its shield frequency in one swoop we can end this war."

My mouth had dropped open as I realised the historic moment that I was now part of. But I was still shocked. "We're going to assassinate the leader of the Dominion in the Alpha Quadrant? That's something the Romulans would do, not the Federation."

An angry look came to the Colonel's face and his antennae twitched, which was probably a sign that he was very angry with my statement. "We're fighting for our very survival, Wing Commander. I don't think that any measures would be inappropriate to save the trillions of beings in this Quadrant."

"I don't know if I can hear anymore, Colonel," I said uneasily. "My conscience will not let me take part in this, consequences and all."

"Lucky for your conscience we're not going to assassinate the female Changeling. We're going to capture her. Starfleet Intelligence thinks that we can accomplish more with her alive then dead."

My conscience was slightly more at ease. "So what is my Squads part?"

"We need you to go in and quickly disable, disarm and shut down the ships shields and communications systems. This needs multiple simultaneous strikes to work. We have this all ready since we had fighters that were going to do this. Once the ship is down we board the vessel and capture the Changeling."

"With just seven operatives against a few hundred Jem'Hadar."

"Doesn't seem fair, does it Wing Commander. Don't worry; this operation is going to work."

I wasn't as convinced as the Colonel but this attack could end up stopping the war. It was worth the risk. The Colonel went through the entire plan very quickly and then uploaded it to my fighter to give to the other pilots of my squad. As soon as the briefing was finished the Colonel prepared to beam me back to my fighter.

"This war is going to change things," said the Colonel. "No longer can we afford to sit on our high horse and be reactive. To win this war we're going to have to get our hands dirty, you'd do well to remember that."

I was about to reply but I felt the tingle of the transporter beam and rematerialised on my fighter.

* * *

><p>I watched as the counter counted down to when the fighter would drop out of Warp. We had travelled for hours at Warp deep into Dominion territory. The Dominion Battle cruiser was in deep space, far from Dominion fleet positions. But this attack had to be quick. With the ship's shield frequency we would need to strike the shields quickly to stop them from changing frequency and making the attack close to impossible. Also the communication systems had to be taken down or Dominion reinforcements would swarm into the area and we would be screwed. This mission was going to be tight and one slip would end it in a hurry.<p>

I checked that weapons were powered up and ready. The ship's computer dropped the fighter out of Warp, point-blank range of a Dominion Battle cruiser. I pressed the weapon's fire trigger. Phaser cannon blasts hit the Battle cruiser, not its shields but the hull. So far two out of two for Starfleet Intelligence. I had never seen weapons fire bypass shields like this before. The shields flared with light as if the shields were hit but the weapon's fire continued and hit the hull. I fired two pairs of torpedoes into the Battle cruiser and was rewarded with a large secondary explosion. My sensors showed that the Battle cruiser's long range communication system had been destroyed. I moved on to my secondary targets, weapon emplacements. I skirted low along the hull of the Battle cruiser and fired. The shields were still up but still useless. The Battlecruiser had a complex shield grid and it took time to destroy but my squadmates were working hard at it. A Phased Polaron Beam fired at my craft hit my shields under the left wing. The force of the impact pushed my fighter up and right. I pulled up hard to put some space between me and the Battle cruiser.

"_Shields down!_" said one of the pilots. _"So are engines, Lead."_

"Go for the weapon emplacements," I ordered. "We need to destroy as many as possible for our safety."

I switched to the frequency SOC were on. "Colonel, all primary targets neutralised. Going after secondary."

"_Understood. We're coming in."_

I looped back around and made another pass and waited for the SOC to do their bit of this operation.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a beep as the communication system notified the pilot that someone was hailing the fighter. The noise caught me by surprise, which was painful. I had gotten out of my seat and was in a narrow access way doing some quick repairs. I had done a lot of repairs on this craft over the years. Like the Doctor had suggested, this fighter was as patched up as I was. This fighter was more then a tool, it was an extension of myself. I would miss her when she was gone.

Overcome squadron had neutralised the Battle cruiser in no time and had set up a perimeter around the craft as SOC boarded the vessel. I had taken the time to check on an overload caused by getting hit by one too many Phased Polaron beams. My upper torso was in the small access way and when the communication system came alive I managed to hit my head.

I grumbled and crawled out and made my way back to my seat. I picked up my helmet that I had left on my seat and quickly put it back on and answered the hail.

"Wing Commander Benton," I answered.

"_Commander, we thought you had disappeared," _said the Colonel over the communication channel.

"Sorry about that, Colonel. I was just doing some running repairs. Nothing serious, though."

"_Good to hear. Commander, I need you to come on board the Battle cruiser. I need your help."_

I furrowed my brow. "What for, Colonel?"

"_I'll explain once you're onboard. Land your fighter in the lower shuttlebay. Colonel Lazenie, out."_

I throttled my fighter forward and slowly manoeuvred my fighter under the Battle cruiser towards the open shuttlebay. Unlike Federation ships the shuttlebay wasn't easy to find, instead of having a garage door type covering that made it stand out the hull coving the shuttlebay on the Battle cruiser was indistinguishable from the rest of the hull.

As I approached the shuttlebay I got a good look inside my first Dominion shuttlebay. It was around the size of the _Galaxy's_ shuttlebay and had several small Dominion shuttlebay that were blasted apart and in the centre was a Type 11 shuttle. I put my fighter into landing mode, which straightened and retracted the wings and deployed the landing struts and put my fighter down next to the shuttle.

I disembarked from my fighter and walked towards the Colonel who was standing with two other agents.

"What's going on now, Colonel?" I asked as I took off my helmet and held it under my arm.

"You're Betazoid, aren't you?"

"Half Betazoid, yes."

"Good. Come with me, quickly."

The Colonel set off in a run and I quickly followed, though I had trouble keeping up with the super fit Andorian. The Colonel led me through the corridors of the Battlecruiser. We passed dozens of bodies, all Jem'Hadar. The deeper we got the louder the sounds of battle became, until we reach the battleline. Three SOC agents were positioned in a corridor exchanging fire with the Jem'Hadar. By the bodies on the floor it was obvious that a major battle took place here. Among the bodies was one SOC agent. The human looking agent had a Jem'Hadar combat knife lodged in his chest; you didn't have to be a Doctor to know he was dead.

The Colonel stopped at the body and started to take some equipment off the body.

"Ah, Colonel, what I'm I doing here?" I asked again. I was very uneasy with been deep inside a Dominion ship, I felt safer flying strafing runs then running around in the ship.

"We need you to take his place," said the Colonel as he removed something contented to the dead agent's belt.

"Take his place?"

The Colonel removed a backpack from the agent and handed it to me.

"Yes, you're a Betazoid and you're the only one who can do it. We need your telepathic abilities."

I let out a laugh. "I'm sorry to say this but I have no telepathic abilities, my human genes are dominant."

The Colonel stood and connected a device to my waist. "This will give you a personal shield system. It is only good for energy weapons, so you can still get the crap beat out of you, so be careful."

The Colonel then placed a headset on my head. Then he started to connect the device on my waist to the backpack I was wearing.

"Colonel, did you hear me before? I have no telepathic abilities! I can't help you."

The Colonel continued and hooked the headset to the backpack. As soon as he did I stumbled backwards in shock.

I struggled to stand as my head felt like it was about to explode. My mind was being bombarded by dozens of voices. It was like people were screaming into my ears. I cried in pain and fell to my knees.

The Colonel was quickly down with me. He pulled my head up and started to talk but with all the noise in my head I couldn't hear or make out his voice. He pointed to his lips and mouthed out a sentence. I finally understood what he was saying and did as he said. Slowly the noise in my head started to die down until I could hear what the Colonel was saying.

"Wing Commander, are you alright?"

"Y…yes. What the hell have you done to me?" I screamed at him.

"This is a special device; it is specially designed to work with Betazoid brain waves. It greatly enhances Betazoid mental abilities, even half Betazoids and Betazoids with little or no real telepathic abilities. It gives them strong telepathic abilities that can operate over a fair distance. For the stronger Betazoids it can even give them telekineses abilities.

"You're probably not use to having telepathic abilities, Wing Commander…"

"Not use to them!" I interrupted. "It feels like my brain is going to explode!"

"Settle down. Do what I said and you can regulate the effects of your new powers. But we need you. You are our early warning person, you can tell where the Jem'Hadar are, how many, and what they plan to do. We need you to make this operation work."

I wasn't even listening to the Colonel; I knew what he was going to say before he said it. Either I possessed hidden talents with telepathy, telepathy was easy, or this device was giving me a lot of help. I could channel out individual thought and focus on others. It was amazing!

The Colonel was looking at me strangely. I didn't need to read his face, I was reading his mind.

"No, I haven't lost it, Colonel," I said, catching the Colonel by surprise. "We need to get moving. The Jem'Hadar are bringing a lot more soldiers to stop us."

The Colonel nodded and helped me to my feet.

"Move forward!" yelled the Colonel. "Pratt, take Rua's body back to the Shuttle."

"And tell the men guarding the Shuttlebay that the Jem'Hadar have troops in the access ways who are setting up to attack the Shuttlebay," I added.

The agent looked at the Colonel as to ask if to take me serious, at least that was what he was thinking. The Colonel nodded and the agent picked up the dead agent's body and started to make his way back to the Shuttle.

The Colonel pressed the device on my waist. And there was a flicker of light as the shields came online. The fact it didn't slice off his arm showed that the shields were indeed only energy shields. The Colonel then stepped into the corridor that was the scene of the fighting. The other two agents had indeed moved forward. With the protection from their shields they stepped out of their cover and quickly killed the forward Jem'Hadar and were moving quickly through the corridor.

I followed them with the Colonel behind me, making sure no Jem'Hadar were going to have an easy time attacking from behind.

It was easy to detect the Jem'Hadar without focusing on individual thoughts. They were the only ones feeling at ease with the situation, even happy to face us and kill or be killed. The SOC agents were different. I could sense their concern and fear, not that I blamed them. We were outnumbered by ten to one. But their emotions were jumping all over the place. Unlike the Jem'Hadar who kept their emotions in check the SOC agents would get distracted by something and their emotions would change. It was an amazing experience.

I then focused on where the Colonel was behind me, he was surprisingly at ease and even happy. The Andorians were a warlike people, so I guess the Colonel was bred for this. I could sense that the Colonel was falling behind, so I turned to see what was wrong. But the Colonel was still right next to me. I looked at the Colonel and then to where my mind was focused on. The Colonel looked back as well in time to see a Jem'Hadar come out of the floor.

I felt a heavy nudge to my side that sent me across the corridor and falling heavily to the ground. As I fell I felt something nick my arm. I looked up and saw the Jem'Hadar smoking body collapse to the floor.

"Are there anymore?" asked the Colonel.

"Only in front of us," I replied as I started to get back up.

The Colonel lent me a helping hand as I got back to my feet.

"Sorry about nudging you out of the way," said the Colonel.

"Don't worry, my breasts broke my fall," I said. I sensed the Colonel think something fairly sexist, before he quickly broke that chain of thought since he knew that I could read his mind. I checked my arm and saw my sleeve had been cut and I was bleeding. Something had cut into my arm. I was going to ask the Colonel and sensed that the Colonel was more focused on my last comment. "Colonel?"

"What?" said the Colonel. "Oh, your arm. The Jem'Hadar had throwing blades and you were his target. That one that just nicked your arm would have done more damage if I didn't push you out of the way."

"In that case, thanks for saving my life."

I looked up the corridor and saw that the two point agents and stopped and were waiting for us.

"By the way where are we going?" I asked.

"We're heading to the bridge; the Founder should be there since it is the only section to have transporter dampeners in use. We still have a fair way to go, we better hurry up."


	5. Chapter 5

Ten decks later and we were finally approaching the Bridge. We encountered numerous Jem'Hadar patrols, with no losses to us. Our personal shields gave us a great advantage. The Colonel paused our advance just outside the Bridge.

"The Founder has to be in there," said the Colonel. "When we go in just kill the Jem'Hadar. There'll probably be the Vorta Weyoun in there as well. We want him alive too, so don't shoot any Vorta or Changelings."

The two SOC agents nodded and got into positions next to the door. The Colonel turned to me. "You'll go in last. I want you to keep your mind's eye focused outside the Bridge. I don't want to be surprised in the Bridge by a group of Jem'Hadar."

I nodded.

The Colonel went up to the door and checked his Phaser rifle. He then raised the rifle to his shoulder and nodded at one of the agents. That agent used the door control panel and the door opened. He quickly stepped into the Bridge, followed by the other two agents. I waited outside as there was an exchange of weapons fire in the Bridge.

"Clear!" yelled the Colonel.

I entered the Bridge and saw that all the Jem'Hadar were on the floor, dead. The only people still standing were the SOC team and a Vorta.

"Where's the Founder?" the Colonel asked the Vorta.

"I am sorry to inform you that the Founder isn't onboard," said the Vorta smugly. I guess the stories of the Vorta's smugness were true after all. The Vorta was surrounded by hostile personnel and he was still smug.

"Phaser sweep the Bridge," ordered the Colonel.

The two other agents set their rifles to wide beam and swept the bridge with a low power beam that would cause any hidden Changelings pain and force them to revert to their normal form.

"You are Special Operation agents, aren't you?" asked the Vorta. "From the USS_ Intrigue_. I thought the Jem'Hadar had dealt with you."

"How do you know where we're from?" asked the Colonel.

"Do you think that we'd really position the Founder here, out in the open with no support? The Founder knew that the Federation's Intelligence community would try to capture her. So like we did to the Tal Shiar and Obsidian Order, we set up traps to weaken and destroy you. I am amazed that you managed to survive the ambush we set up for you."

The Colonel had a look of shock on his face. He looked over to the two agents how had finished their sweeps. Both shook their heads. There was no Founder on the Bridge. It looked like the Vorta has telling the truth.

"What are we going to do now," asked one of the agents.

"Well…we'll take him," said the Colonel pointing to the Vorta. "Intelligence will want to interrogate him later."

The Colonel stepped forward to grab the Vorta.

"I don't think so, Colonel. The Founder has ordered that you all die. I must follow her orders."

The Vorta's neck craned and there was an audible crack. The Vorta collapsed on the ground in a heap. The Colonel ran to his side and felt the Vorta's pulse.

"Damn, he's dead! He killed himself. I should of known that the Founders would have given the Vorta the suicide option to stop them from been captured. We better return to the Shuttle and get out of here."

"Colonel!" called one of the agents. "I think you should see this."

The Colonel moved to where the agent was standing over a console. "What is it?"

"It's a count down," said the agent.

"To what?"

"Most likely to self destruct. It started as soon as the Vorta died. He must have had the self destruct system set to start as soon as it detected that his heart had stopped. We have just over five minutes."

"I really _hate_ Vortas. Come on, let's get going now. We don't have much time to get all the way back to the Shuttlebay."

"I guess this mission was a bust," I commented as we exited the Bridge.

"I'd say it was a disaster, Wing Commander."

* * *

><p>Three minutes later we had fought our way back to the Shuttlebay. The bay hadn't changed much, except there were a lot more Jem'Hadar bodies in it. The two of the three SOC agents who had been left at the bay or returned to the bay were still standing. But I could sense the third in the shuttle. He was in a lot of pain, so I could guess what had happened to him.<p>

"We need to get out of here, now," said the Colonel as he fired behind him at the Jem'Hadar who had pursued us most of the way. "This ship is going to blow in under two minute. Commander, can you get your fighter out of here in time?"

"Sure," I said.

"Then I suggest you hurry. We have one minute and forty seconds left."

I ran towards my fighter as Jem'Hadar weapon's fire poured into the shuttlebay. I had nothing to worry about as my personal shields were still working. I quickly boarded my fighter and started it up. My fighter's nose was pointed inwards and I saw the Jem'Hadar as they started to pour into the Shuttlebay, hugging anything that would provide cover. The SOC team's shuttle was at my left, pointed the other way, so the entrance to the shuttle was pointed towards where the Jem'Hadar were entering. The Colonel and his men were still outside the shuttle firing at the Jem'Hadar, trying to keep them back.

With a minute to go my fighters systems had powered up. My fighter lifted off the deck as its thrusters came online. I lifted the landing struts and prepared to depart. The SOC agents were still firing at the Jem'Hadar. One of the SOC agents took several weapon hits to his shields. The next shot passed through his shield and struck the agent on the arm. The agents had fought long and hard and now their shields were giving way. Another agent moved to shield the downed agent, but his shields didn't look too good either.

I powered up my Phaser cannon and using the lateral thrusters I slowly turned the fighter towards the bulk of the Jem'Hadar troops and opened fire. The Jem'Hadar troops were vaporised by my fire, which was much heavier then any Phaser rifle. The walls exploded under my fire as it dug deeper into the Battlecruiser. The Jem'Hadar at the other side of the bay from where I attacked turned their fire from the SOC agents to my fighter. But my fighter's hull was strong enough to take the fire, even without the shields. I rotated my fighter to the new threats and fired.

"Come on guys! We only have forty seconds left!" I muttered as I provided more covering fire for the SOC agents.

Suddenly there was a large explosion on the left side of my fighter, damaging some of my fighter's thrusters. My fighter drifted left before I managed to power down the right thrusters, evening everything up. Then there was a similar explosion to my right side, then a third explosion. My fighter swung to the right, out of control. I heard and felt more explosions on my fighter. My fighter slammed into the wall of the Shuttlebay and dropped down to the floor. The crash stunned me. I was still conscious but I had no idea what I was doing. The smell of smoke shocked me back to reality.

I ejected the canopy of my fighter and unstrapped myself from my fighter. But when I put weight on my left leg I collapsed in pain. I swore as I realised that I had broken my leg. I shadow appeared over me and I looked up expecting to see a Jem'Hadar, but it was Colonel Lazenie instead.

"Are you alright, Wing Commander?" said the Colonel, his voice full of concern.

"My leg's broken!"

The Colonel swore. Then reached down and grabbed hold of me. "This is going to hurt, I'm going to drag you out of the fighter."

The Colonel didn't lie about that. The Colonel pulled me up causing me to scream out in pain. I clenched my teeth as I tried not to continue screaming. In what seemed to take forever the Colonel had pulled me out of the wreck of my fighter.

"I'm going to carry you to the shuttle," said the Colonel. "That's going to hurt as well, but when we get into the Shuttle we'll be able to give you something for the pain."

I nodded. I couldn't talk, I was close to crying. I had broken bones before, but you don't get use to that kind of pain. The Colonel picked me up as gently as he could and ran toward the shuttle, which was what hurt the most. The impact of running jolted my body, including my broken leg. Luckily the Shuttle was relatively close and as soon as I was in the Colonel put me down.

"We've got ten seconds left!" yelled back the pilot.

"Then get us out of here! Tell the fighters to put some distance between them and the Battle cruiser," ordered the Colonel.

The Colonel was good to his word and applied a hypospray to my neck, immediately the pain was gone.

"Five…four…three…two…one…zero," counted down the pilot.

"Put the Battle cruiser on the viewscreen back here," said the Colonel.

A wall mounted viewscreen came alive and showed the Battle cruiser. Without the pain I managed to prop myself up and look at the viewscreen. Several of the fighters that had been guarding the Battle cruiser were pulling away from the Battle cruiser as several explosions breached the hull. The Battle cruiser ripped itself apart in a matter of seconds.

I was bombarded with feelings of joy as the SOC agents watched the Battle cruiser die. It had been the reason that so many of their friends had died and they felt avenged.

I lay back down and closed my eyes, relieved that I had survived the mission. I channelled out all the other thoughts and emotions I could sense and just rested. My mind returned to earlier thoughts, ones that I didn't want to think about. But they forced their way into my mind, maybe it was telepathic abilities that were stopping me from blocking myself from thinking these thoughts. But in the end I knew what I had to do.


	6. Chapter 6

I pressed the door alarm again and waited. I guess no one was home, so I turned to leave.

The door whooshed open. "Maxine, the Doctor's already let you out of her sight! She must be getting soft," joked Jonathan. "Come in. Sorry to hear that you lost your fighter today."

"Me too. I'd had the fighter for a long time, I'll miss her. Probably sounds a bit silly speaking about an object like a _Peregrine_ class fighter like that."

"We emotional beings get attached to strange things, Maxine."

I agreed with Jonathan and entered Jonathan's quarters and noticed he had made some changes.

"When did you get that?" I asked pointing to an object that was under the middle window in the room.

"That's my new table and stand. I picked it up at a shop on the starbase."

I walked over the table/stand and saw that it had schematics over it along with tools and parts. Jonathan was building something. I took a good look at the schematics.

"Excelsior class starship, schematics," I read. "You're building a model of an _Excelsior_?"  
>Jonathan nodded. "Yes, of the original USS<em> Swiftfire<em> to be more specific. It's my little tribute to my old crew. Part of getting over the past."

I looked over Jonathan's construction and picked up a little nacelle, but I couldn't keep putting it off. "It's over, Jonathan."

"It's over?" said Jonathan confused.

"I don't think we should keep dating each other."

"Why?" said Jonathan, still confused. "I thought everything was fine."

I put down the nacelle and turned to face Jonathan. "That's the problem. It's always been fine, nothing more. I like you, Jonathan and I'm sure you like me. But I doubt we'd ever get past the 'fine' stage."

Jonathan looked bewildered. He tried to say something but it was like just before he spoke someone would steal the words from him and he would stop. Jonathan finally got himself together. "We can…I can make it more then fine, Maxine."

I stepped closer to Jonathan. She wasn't sure if it was a side effect from the telepathic device I'd wore, but I felt a lot of tension and pain all around me. I wasn't sure if it was just from me or from Jonathan as well. I took hold of Jonathan's face and pulled his head towards mine and kissed him.

I let him go and he pulled back. "Did you feel that?" I asked.

"What?"

"Exactly. From the first time we kissed I felt nothing between us, no intense feelings or little tingle. Even with my weak empathic abilities I can normally sense feeling when in direct contact with people, and I didn't feel love when we kissed or a longing to be together."

"Maxine…"

"Wait, let me finish," I said stopping Jonathan. "That is why you've avoided been intimate with me since then. You know I felt what you felt or what you didn't feel. I really felt something for you but I now know that you don't and you can't."

Jonathan's head went down. He didn't try to deny it. "I am so sorry, Maxine. I didn't mean to hurt you."

I put my hand under Jonathan's chin and pulled his head back up. "Don't worry. I wasn't too hurt. I like you a lot, maybe even love you. But you don't feel the same way, I can live with it."

I gave Jonathan a light kiss on the cheek and headed towards the door.

"Don't you even want am explanation of why I let you continue?" asked Jonathan.

I turned back to him. "I know why. You lost a lot people you felt close to. You didn't want to die alone, you want someone to grow old with and I came and gave you someone who would do that. Even though you didn't love me, you were so scared of been alone that you let it continue."

Jonathan nodded a look of shame on his face. "You deserve better, Maxine. You'll find someone who feels the way about you that I wish I could feel about you."

"I do deserve better, but so do you, Jonathan. One day we'll both get what we want. See you around…friends?" I stretched out my hand.

Jonathan took it and held on tight. "Friends."

With that I smiled sweetly at Jonathan and left. As soon as the door closed behind me I stopped and took a deep breath and composed myself. It hurt to end it with Jonathan, I did really care for him, but over the last month I had come to realise that no matter how I felt, Jonathan just didn't feel the same. So I had to end it, before I got too attached to Jonathan and got really badly emotionally hurt.

I decided that hanging around Jonathan's door wouldn't help me at the moment. So it was to the main lounge for some very heavy drinking. I'd lost my favourite fighter and ended it with Jonathan all in one day. Only alcohol would make me feel better, a seriously large amount of alcohol.

I waited by the turbolift for it to reach my deck. When it did a young, attractive blonde human female exited.

"Excuse me," said asked. "Do you know where the Captain's quarters are?"

"Yes, down the corridor and then to the left and I think it is the fifth door, but it says on the door so you should be able to spot it."

"Thank you. I'm Lieutenant Wessling, the new ship's counsellor."

I shook hands with the Lieutenant. "You're Lieutenant Letac's friend. She's told us about you. I'm Wing Commander Benton, the commander of the Peregrine squadrons on the _Swiftfire_."

"Nice to meet you, Wing Commander."

"May I ask if the Captain asked to see you?"

"No," said Wessling. "I don't come on duty until tomorrow. I thought I'd meet the Captain before then."

"I don't think the Captain wants to see anyone right now. He's got some things to get over."

"Oh," said the Lieutenant. She looked unsure of what to do.

"So what are you up to now, Lieutenant? Do you have anything planned?" I asked.

"No. Terri, I mean Lieutenant Letac is pulling a double shift to finish preparations before we leave for Earth tomorrow morning, so I guess I'll just go back to my quarters. Why, Wing Commander?"

"Just call me Maxine. I've got a better idea; I'm off to the main lounge for a bit of 'I survived a dangerous mission and have to get over personal issue' drinking. Since you're new onboard how about we turn it into a welcome onboard drinking session?" I suggested.

"Well, I've got nothing else on."

"So that would be a yes?"

"Yes," said Wessling happily. I sensed she was glad to have made a friend with someone already. I also put a mental note down to see the doctor about these side effects, just to make sure they would go away. Life was easier when I couldn't read people's minds and emotions.

"Great." I stepped into the lift with Lieutenant Wessling.

"Aimee."

"Pardon?"

"It's Aimee, Aimee Wessling."

"Excellent. We're already on first name basis. Come on, let's go get drunk!"


End file.
